Improving your written English skills will not only enhance the opportunities you have at work, but it will also increase your chances of getting work in the first place.

An email or letter with spelling or grammatical errors or poor formatting can have a really negative impact on the reader’s perception of you. If you are selling to a potential customer or another business this could have a detrimental effect on potential sales. If you are communicating with your line manager it might influence bonuses, chances of promotion or the nature of the work assigned to you.

It’s not just the errors, but also the way you express yourself. Does your letter have impact? Is it persuasive? Is it comprehensible or full of jargon and overly complicated expressions? Badly written letters and emails are just as likely to lose you sales or create misunderstandings, meaning you will have to spend time rewriting your communication.

If you are applying for work, a CV or covering letter that contains mistakes or is badly written could mean that your application does not get any further than the recruitment officer’s bin, no matter how relevant and extensive your experience.

Taking a course to improve your written English will push the standard of your English to the front of your mind. Whether the course confirms what you already know or is teaching you something new, it will also give you the attention to detail and teach you to look at your own work.

By investing a small amount of time, taking a course to improve your written skills could really boost your career opportunities.